I am SO glad I went to see my grandmother! My parents were rather overwhelmed, and since I am a pharmacist in a large teaching hospital, I can "Speak Hospitalese".
When I saw her on Saturday morning, she was in incredible pain. She kept saying, "Oh God, why have you forsaken me? Please take me now". She was crying for a while, then said she had no more energy to cry. I talked to DH about bringing the kids down next weekend while I was at work, thinking it would be their last chance to see her. I spent time comforting my mother, who couldn's stand seeing her mother in such pain. Knowing that she had several procedures coming up, I asked the nurse to see if she could have some Ativan to calm her down. The Ativan worked better than I could have hoped. She slept on and off for most of the day. They continued to give her Ativan through the night, allowing her to get over 12 hours of solid sleep as well as some dozing. She also got a Cortisone shot into her shoulder joint. She was unable to move either of her arms without tremendous pain.
Sunday morning, after her good sleep, she was awake and alert. She said she was completely comfortable unless she was being moved. She asked for her hearing aid. She knew her nurse's name, knew where she was, asked about my kids - in short, she got most of her marbles back. Her color looked better, she was drinking Ensure, water and eating pudding (Saturday, she refused to take anything by mouth but water and a little bit of pudding to help her medicine go down). By the end of the day, she was getting fretful and needed more Ativan to help her sleep. The arm with the damaged shoulder could only be moved a little bit, she could move her other arm enough to stratch her nose when it itched.
What started this is that she fell getting out of bed early Friday morning. Since she was in Independent Living in a retirement apartment, she wasn't found for several hours. Medically, she tore the rotary cuff tendon and tore the tendon that attaches the collarbone to the scapula (the "angel-wing" bone of the upper back and shoulder). No wonder she was in pain! X-Rays also show a tremendous amount of arthritis and osteoporosis. As the Orthopedist put it, her bones are wearing out. The pain she had originally had in her lower back is due to compression fractures. Not unexpected at the age of 96.
After she leaves the hospital, she will go to a nursing home for therapy. She may be able to move to Assisted Living, but it doesn't look possible for her to live independently again.
As she was so much better, I come home last night. As I was leaving, she made me promise not to speed on my way home :) I'll go back in a couple of weeks. I need to get the kids there soon, but it is not as urgent as it appeared on Saturday.
Thank you for your prayers! They obviously did some good. She's much better, but far from recovered.
Kim